1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to bi-fold closet doors, and more particularly to a corner bracket that reinforces the door's attachment to the doorjamb track.
2. Prior Art
Bi-fold doors are commonly used with closets. Typically, a bi-fold door has two pair of two doors hinged together, a hinge door pivotally connected at its top and bottom near the vertical member of the doorjamb and a lead door guided in an overhead track on the upper horizontal member of the doorjamb. The lead door has a roller on a peg extending upwardly out of a bore in the door top near the door upper corner. The roller moves in the track to guide the doors during opening and closing as the doors fold on the hinges that join them.
The overhead track is typically U-shaped with flanges depending from a web that is screwed into the horizontal member of the doorjamb. Inwardly directed ledges typically extend from flange distal ends toward each other creating a slot entry into the channel. The peg then passes through the slot and the roller is retained in the channel by the opposing channel ledges. At the door, the peg is press-fit into the door bore.
This typical bi-fold configuration is provided convenient access to the closet but has been disadvantageous because when bi-fold doors are repeatedly slammed open or closed, as commonly happens in service, lateral forces act through the peg and roller in stopping door momentum eventually results in damage to the door. As the peg transmits the forces to the door, eventually the door, typically made out of wood or wood products, is unable to sustain the repeated forces and the bore becomes enlarged or the door splinters at the bore. Repair of this damage to the door is a common and can become a costly maintenance item to apartment complexes. Commonly, the peg splinters the side of the door, indicating that the door is generally able to sustain the component of these forces directed toward the door side edge but the splintering door side is unable to sustain the component of the forces in the direction of the door side, which force component is referred to below as the damaging force or forces.
It is known to have a narrow metal corner bracket screwed to the door corner with a horizontal member and vertical member joining orthogonally to form an right angle bracket and having a matching bracket hole in the horizontal member aligned with the door bore over the door top edge. The corner bracket thus mounts to the door edge corner with vertical member screwed onto the door side edge. Although such a bracket improves distribution of the forces to door, it also has disadvantages. Screws in the corner bracket that attach the bracket to the door are still at the door edges and are subject to tearing through the soft wood of the door edge. The vertical member of the corner bracket is unsightly and is also noticeable to a person in front of the door. To avoid the soft edge wood, the bracket might be provided with a lip extending over the door edge to the door side through which screws might secure the bracket to the door back side near the door edge instead of or in addition to the soft door edge.
However, even with additional bracket screws in or near the door edges sharing the forces to the door, repeated forces may splinter the door. And for a bracket with a lip, a different sized bracket must be provided for each sized door if the matching bracket hole is to align with the door bore in the center of the door edge. Also, door bores are of different sizes for different manufacturers again requiring a bracket customized for each bore size. To manufacture a set of brackets that meets all of the varied conditions quickly becomes uneconomic.